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Woman Charged With Kidnap Of Minn. Child

MINNEAPOLIS (AP/WCCO) — A Minneapolis woman accused of kidnapping an 8-month-old baby and triggering an Amber Alert had told the boy’s mother she recently suffered a miscarriage, according to charges filed Friday.

Isabel Diaz-Castillo, 30, was charged in Hennepin County with one felony count of kidnapping. She is scheduled to make her first court appearance Monday.

According to a criminal complaint, Diaz-Castillo had befriended the boy’s mother, Vicky Orozco, after meeting her at a Laundromat about a month earlier and had taken “an extreme interest” in her son, Carlos.

Orozco called police Wednesday and said her son had been taken from her south Minneapolis apartment while she was taking a shower. Diaz-Castillo was found with the baby in her arms in the basement of her brother’s house in south Minneapolis, according to the complaint.

The boy’s hair appeared to have been cut, Orozco said.

Diaz-Castillo also had some suitcases packed at her home, and her boyfriend said they were going to be moving at the end of the month.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said during a news conference Friday that he “can’t imagine a more sickening feeling for a parent” than to come out of a shower and find his or her baby missing.

Diaz-Castillo’s sister-in-law told police that when Diaz-Castillo showed up Wednesday with the child, she said it was a son she had been trying to bring back from Mexico.

When police went to take the baby and return him to his mother, Diaz-Castillo screamed “That’s my baby!” and would not let him go, the complaint alleges. Officers had to remove the baby from Diaz-Castillo’s arms, the complaint said.

Diaz-Castillo was in the Hennepin County Jail on Friday and didn’t respond to a phone message. Online court records do not list a defense attorney. Her bail has been set at $100,000.

When asked if a deportation order trumps a trial, the county attorney said that usually someone is deported after they are tried and their sentence has been completed.